The blog of the radio announcer for the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, the Midwest League affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers.

The 2nd Greatest Easter

Or, just take a look at the one on the Rattlers facebook page that shows the joy of winning an early season game.

The Rattlers celebrate Parker Berberet's game winning hit against the Cedar Rapids Kernels on April 7, 2012

The comeback made me flashback to a certain game in Brewers history. And I wrote about it on the old blog in 2006. Here is a repost of my thoughts about the 2nd Greatest Easter Ever:

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The Greatest Easter is obvious to all who believe. The second greatest is a distant second, but it is still worth remembering on a baseball blog.

Brewer fans already know where this is going. Easter Sunday. April 19, 1987.

The game was on the radio out on the porch of my parent’s house. We had some family over for a little holiday lunch. It was 4-1 in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Rangers led the Brewers. It looked like there was no way the Crew would rally and the season opening winning streak would end at eleven.

Mitch Williams (yes, that Mitch Williams) walked Glen Braggs, gave up a single to Greg Brock, and retired Cecil Cooper. That’s when Bobby Valentine (yes, that Bobby Valentine) brought in Greg Harris to face Rob Deer. An 0-1 breaking ball was almost hit out of the County Stadium to tie the game at 4-4. The crowd was going nuts in the background as Bob Uecker made the call.

“I don’t remember running the bases,” Deer said. “I got back to the on-deck circle and everybody was jumping all over me.”

The jumping wasn’t over.

Harris struck out rookie B.J. Surhoff but walked Jim Gantner on a 3-2 pitch. That brought up Sveum, a switch-hitter batting left.

The count again went to 3-2 and Harris threw a fastball. This time the blast was a line drive that rocketed into the right-field bleachers.

Make that 6-4 — and 12 straight.

The roar that followed lasted for several minutes as Sveum was called out of the clubhouse for two curtain calls and then a third along with Deer.

“This is the greatest day of my life,” Deer said. “This is the funnest game I’ve ever played in.

“I know how those guys feel winning a World Series. That’s 10 times more than this, but I don’t know how anybody can feel any better than I did walking into this locker room.”

Or any better than Brewers fans did walking out of County Stadium that Easter Sunday.

That start of the trip around the bases that Deer doesn’t remember was captured for the cover of Sports Illustrated:

Rob Deer!

After that it was a few ham sandwiches, a nap, and THE TEN COMMANDMENTSon ABC. All-in-all, a pretty good Easter. Right, Chuck?

Behold His mighty hand!

Exactly.

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The only thing that I will add to my thoughts from the original post is this: It’s hard to believe that Easter Sunday, 1987 was 25 years ago.

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